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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Bank staff to take up wage issue with PM

BS Reporter / Berhampur February 23, 2009, 0:59 IST

With the ninth bipartite wage settlement meeting of bank employees ending inconclusively in Mumbai on Saturday, the aggrieved United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation of nine unions, has decided to take up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. In case talks with the PM and FM fail, bankers will go on a nationwide strike in March, the union leaders said.

The talks failed when UFBU rejected the offer made by the Indian Bank Association (IBA) to increase the wages by only 13 per cent as against the demanded 30 per cent.

“While we had asked for a 30 per cent increase in wages, IBA offered only a 13 per cent hike,” said T Ravindranath, an UFBU leader and general secretary of All India Andhra Bank Award Employees’ Union (AIABAEU).

B S R Mohan Reddy, chairman, AIABAEU, said, “We have rejected the offer and demanded a 30 per cent increase in wages, considering all aspects including the implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission for government employees.”

Friday, February 13, 2009

Talks with IBA (11.02.2009)


As quoted on AIBEA's webpage



Another round of discussion was held today between IBA and UFBU. The IBA was led by Mr. M. V. Nair, Chairman of the Negotiating Committee, while UFBU was represented by our constituent unions.

1. Pension Option : In today’s meeting IBA informed that the report of the common actuaries relating to the additional cost for extending pension option to the past retirees from 1996 has been received which has identified an additional net liability of around Rs. 3,000 crores. IBA indicated that the issue can be resolved on the same basis as will be finalised for the existing PF optees who are in the banks’ service. It was decided to discuss the issue further.

However, IBA insisted that the new employees who will henceforth join the banks should be governed by the new pension scheme as has been implemented by the Government for new employees from 2004. From UFBU, we vehemently objected to this condition and demanded that the future employees should also be governed by the existing pension scheme.

In view of the divergent views on the matter, it was decided to discuss the matter further in the next round of meeting.

Regarding sharing of the additional cost, from UFBU we maintained our earlier stand that Rs. 1,500 crores can be borne by us while the balance by the banks. The IBA, while informing that they would like to resolve the issue by discussion, did not indicate any further offer than that was made in the last meeting.

2. Wage Revision : In this meeting, from UFBU we emphasized the need for a substantial increase in the offer made by the IBA. After discussion, IBA came forward to offer an increase in wages of Rs. 3,600 crores for the employees and officers put together as against Rs. 2,750 crores offered in the last round of discussion. We stated that the offer of IBA needs to be further improved substantially.

Preceding this discussion, in the morning session the IBA had another round of discussion with the workmen unions regarding streamlining the Special Pay Post in the emerging context of CBS system in the bank branches. It was agreed to discuss the matter further. Regarding IBA’s demand for a provision to dispense with the employees above the age of 50 years without holding any departmental enquiry in public interest, the same was rejected by the unions and IBA agreed not to insist on the same.

It has been decided that very shortly further round of discussions will take place on the above issues with a view to find an early and amicable resolution of our demands.

With greetings,

Yours Comradely,

Sd/-


C.H. VENKATACHALAM

CONVENER

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

PSU Bank staff to get pension in new regime

After years of wrangling, public sector bank employees are set to get a comprehensive pension benefit.

All employees of public sector banks are likely to be brought under the pension benefit with the implementation of a new wage formula, which is currently under discussion.

At present 2.5 lakh employees who are covered under the provident fund net do not enjoy pension benefits. The move could mean an additional cost of Rs 6,000 crore for state-owned banks.

The managements and trade unions are yet to sort out how the additional burden would be sourced and shared.

A meeting on the issue is scheduled to be held between the Indian Banks Association and the trade unions on Wednesday.

“We are trying to bring all bank employees under the pension net and the management and employees both would be required to share and shoulder the additional burden,” C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) told p.

Maligned for decades after the government nationalised several banks between 1969 and 1978, public sector banks have since grown in size and branch network.

The employees who were considered high cost and inefficient amid a wave of computerization that spread through the global banking industry in the 1980s are suddenly on strong ground because the balance sheets of Indian public sector banks are looking good in contrast to crisis-hit banking giants of the West.

Employees may get a hike of about 15 per cent or more with all public sector banks standing tall. Most banks have already made a provision for the increased wages. Depending on the size of the banks, the additional outflow due to the increased wages is likely to between Rs 150 crore and Rs 500 crore.

Industry sources said that negotiations on revision of wages have already reached the final stages and an announcement on a settlement may well be made before the general elections.

New Delhi, February 10, 2009

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Erosion of Social status of Bank officers:

Erosion of Social status of Bank officers:


There used to be a time when a bank officer’s job ranked second only to IAS in India in terms of economic and social status. Banking industry used to attract the best of talent especially in the officer cadre. This was so because the aspirants expected a dignified job profile with commensurate financial compensation.

However, for the last few years, the job of a PSB officer has lost its erstwhile charm. This has happened mainly because of de-linking of compensation from merit and insistence of the officers’ representative bodies to have uniform pay structure for one and all on the lines of workmen. This has been exploited by the bank managements by denying sharing the fruit of growth of banking industry with the officer fraternity. Unions’ stand has given the impression that officers are not competent enough to stand up to the professional challenges and want to hide behind the uniform pay structure. Performers are being made to subsidies the existence of non-performers within individual organizations, and employees of better performing organizations have to suffer because of incompetence of their counterparts in the weak banks. At the negotiating table of wage revision, IBA takes a strong plea that weak banks may not be able to bear the burden of increased compensation. Consequently, peanuts are given as revision in wages/ perks. Unions have never been able to convince IBA that bank employees are being given step motherly treatment vis-à-vis central Govt. employees/ other PSU employees. Even oil PSU employees, whose employers are being kept alive through regular capital infusions in the form of oil bonds, enjoy royal lifestyles and still show dissatisfaction about their remuneration.

It is increasingly becoming difficult for bank officers to maintain their social and economic status as compared to their peer group in non-banking public sector, leave aside private sector. An officer in PSB cannot afford to take on lease a LIG flat to house his family of 4-5 persons. He is expected to find an accommodation at Rs. 5300 per month in Delhi/ Mumbai whereas SBI pays Rs. 10,000 plus. It is embarrassing to note the response of landlords when they hear about the budget of PSB officers. The school managements do not even call him for interview if an officer in public sector bank applies for admission of their ward because they know that he will not be able to afford the expenses. There are number of such instances where the officers fail to justify to their families as to why they cannot have the same level of comforts (forget luxuries) which other PSU officers can easily manage, even though the bank officers have longer working hours, more working days and are constantly subjected to periodic transfers without adequate compensation. This, alongwith increased performance pressures, has been the main cause of increasing irritability among the officers as they feel that they have been caught in the vortex of indifferent management and biased representatives, with no say at both the forums.

We would like our representatives to consider that they should rise above the biased approach of fighting for a lost cause of the group to which they individually belong, to the peril of the majority of the working employees who have elected them to this responsible position, lest one should be forced to say, ”Lamho ne khataa ki, sadiyon ne sazaa payii.”

Sunday, February 1, 2009

PLEASE CIRCULATE TO ALL COLLEAGUES (ALSO SEND SMS)


For central govt. employee the wage revision is at 40% with lots of other benefit , for PSUs the revision range from 60% to 90 % , for UGC teaching professionals the revision is at 60% & even in many state govt the revision is more than 50 % . But PSUs bank offer is at 10 % . Please ask yourself do you work less than other ? is your organization not making enough profit ? are you working at a very comfortable environment without risk & responsibility ? if your answer is NO , than u deserve a respectable wage hike
(LET US MAKE IT A MASS MOVEMENT )

PLEASE CIRCULATE TO ALL COLLEAGUES (ALSO SEND SMS)

Mail your anguish to IBA as well ,
Mailing Address of IBA : webmaster@iba.org.in